8.20.2007

Well about two months ago Chris counted the number of tomatoes ripening on our four plants. He counted about twenty-eight overall. We were so excited! Especially since most of the other plants weren't doing that well. Peas were ok I guess, strawberries were pretty happy, but everything else either got chomped on by wild animals or scorched in this crazy New Mexican sun. I quickly made all sorts of plans and pulled out my favorite recipe for genuine homemade tomato sauce which called for massive amounts of the fruit and which I planned to can and store away for winter.

We waited and we waited, but long after the other vegetables were ripened and gone those tomatoes remained shiny green and stubbornly attached to their hosts. People told us all sorts of things about the trouble with growing tomatoes here:

You need water walls around them.Put shade cloth over them.It's too hot here during the day.It's too cold here at night.They will grow but never ripen...

Just as we thought all hope was lost, a tomato in the front started turning orange. Very quickly all its relatives began to follow suit, so that in the past two days we've harvested ten Romas and there are still at least twenty more on our four bushes!!!

And so now, my friends, even Pepper and the boys enjoy eating their freshly sun-ripened tomatoes; and this truly gives our story a very happy ending.